Tag: uk

The U.K.’s international trade minister said on Sunday that the Brexit process was at risk of being “hijacked” by ‘Remainers’ within parliament. May is expected to address Parliament on Monday afternoon and to set out how she intends to deal with the Brexit deal impasse. Remainers and Brexiteers remain at loggerheads over Brexit and what level of closeness the U.K. should have to the bloc in future, however. “You’ve got a ‘leave’ population, and a ‘remain’ parliament,” Liam Fox told the BBC on S

The Irish “backstop” – a fall-back option intended to keep the Irish/Northern Irish border open if the U.K. and EU fail to strike a trade deal in a 21-month transition period following the departure date in March 2019 – has been a key stumbling block in Brexit negotiations.

It’s controversial as it would mean that Northern Ireland, a part of the U.K., stays roughly aligned to the rules of the EU’s single market in a bid to avoid a “hard” border with Ireland. That has proved controversial for lawmakers across the spectrum and May was expected to focus on resolving the backstop issue in a bid to persuade politicians within her own Conservative party and the opposition to back her deal.

The U.K.’s international trade minister said on Sunday that the Brexit process was at risk of being “hijacked” by ‘Remainers’ within parliament. May is expected to address Parliament on Monday afternoon and to set out how she intends to deal with the Brexit deal impasse.

Remainers and Brexiteers remain at loggerheads over Brexit and what level of closeness the U.K. should have to the bloc in future, however.

“You’ve got a ‘leave’ population, and a ‘remain’ parliament,” Liam Fox told the BBC on Sunday.

“Parliament has not got the right to hijack the Brexit process … What we are now getting are some of those who were always absolutely opposed to the result of the referendum trying to hijack Brexit and in effect steal the result from the people.”

Meanwhile, the Shadow Brexit Secretary Kier Starmer said that the U.K. now needed to be “realistic about what the options are” when he spoke to the BBC’s Andrew Marr show Sunday.

Kamal Sharma, director of G10 FX Strategy for Europe at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, told CNBC on Monday that the direction May’s deal will take, and how the wider Parliament reacts to it, is crucial this week.

“There’s been very interesting developments over the weekend, it does seem that the Conservative party still is grappling with itself rather than a negotiation between itself and the EU,” he told CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe.

“So while Parliament doesn’t actually have a ‘Plan B’ — whether it be a customs union or a ‘Norway plus’ arrangement — it does have a majority for a no-deal, so what will be more important this week will be those amendments that come through and the power of those amendments in terms of votes.”

A ‘Norway plus’ arrangement (so-called as it’s the trade deal that Norway has with the EU) would mean that the U.K. is not a member of the EU but is in the European Economic Area and part of the single market.

While there’s still a long way to go until equality is reached across all fronts — many companies are actively implementing initiatives to bring about positive change. “Pinsent Masons is leading the way championing lesbian, gay, bi and trans equality in the workplace. The LGBT rights charity Stonewall compiled a list of the top 100 employers that embrace LGBT inclusion, after accumulating over 92,000 anonymous responses from U.K. employees on their experience in the workplace. The answers were g

Businesses around the world are gradually waking up to the importance of inclusivity in today’s workforce. While there’s still a long way to go until equality is reached across all fronts — many companies are actively implementing initiatives to bring about positive change.

Pinsent Masons is a clear example, having been crowned as the U.K.’s top LGBT-inclusive employer in Stonewall’s annual LGBT-inclusive employer list, which called the international law firm a “shining example” for how it ensures that “staff feel empowered and supported.”

“Pinsent Masons is leading the way championing lesbian, gay, bi and trans equality in the workplace. They know that helping staff feel that they can bring their full selves to work doesn’t just make a huge difference to individual team members – it makes real business sense too,” Darren Towers, executive director at Stonewall, said in a statement released Monday.

Another law firm, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner was ranked second, followed by Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service.

The LGBT rights charity Stonewall compiled a list of the top 100 employers that embrace LGBT inclusion, after accumulating over 92,000 anonymous responses from U.K. employees on their experience in the workplace. The answers were gathered from submissions to Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index.

Other names in the top 10 came from various industries, including prominent names like MI5, Citi, Lloyds Banking Group and Baker McKenzie.

Higher education organizations meantime excelled in the top 100, with 18 institutions placing in 2019’s rankings, with many featuring in the top trans-inclusive employers list, such as universities in Cardiff, Swansea and Sheffield.

While Stonewall’s ranking demonstrates that positive change is in play, more work is needed.

In 2018, 58 percent of young LGBT+ participants in a Vodafone-commissioned survey admitted that they hadn’t been open at work about their gender identity or sexual orientation in their first job, as they feared discrimination. Stonewall’s own research in 2018, revealed that nearly one-in-five LGBT employees surveyed had been subjected to negative comments or conduct from other colleagues in the past year.

British Prime Minister Theresa May announced tweaks to her much-maligned Brexit deal on Monday, in the hope of winning over lawmakers who overwhelmingly rejected her proposals last week. A major sticking point to her withdrawal deal is an agreement to ensure no hard border returns between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. “The right way for this house to rule out ‘no deal’ is for this house to approve a deal with the European Union,” she said. May said she would continue to hold furt

British Prime Minister Theresa May announced tweaks to her much-maligned Brexit deal on Monday, in the hope of winning over lawmakers who overwhelmingly rejected her proposals last week.

A major sticking point to her withdrawal deal is an agreement to ensure no hard border returns between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Some Brexiteers feel that “backstop” could be used by Brussels as a means to keep Britain within the EU while the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is nervous it would lead to Northern Ireland being treated differently from the rest of the U.K.

In a statement to the lower house of Parliament on Monday afternoon, May said she would now discuss with the DUP on how to allay fears among the people of Northern Ireland before returning to negotiate further with Brussels.

However, May said the prospect of a second Brexit referendum did not enjoy majority support and also rejected the growing calls for her to rule out a “no-deal” Brexit as a possibility.

“The right way for this house to rule out ‘no deal’ is for this house to approve a deal with the European Union,” she said.

In what appeared to be some small concession to opponents, May said her government would also guarantee that workers’ and environmental rights would not be eroded post-Brexit and that a £65 ($84) fee for EU nationals applying for settled status would now be abolished.

May said she would continue to hold further meetings on Brexit next week and hoped that opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn would hold talks with her. Corbyn’s response to May’s statement was to accuse her of failing to realize the extent of her defeat last week and that her cross-party talks have been a “sham.”

Prior to the statement, sterling sat at 1.2870 versus the dollar and rose to $1.2890 as she spoke.

Parliament will now debate Monday’s statement from the U.K. leader before a vote on the motion is taken on Tuesday January 29.

The U.K.’s withdrawal from the EU should be put to a second public vote to overcome the current impasse, the former prime minister of Finland told CNBC Monday. The Brexit deadlock continues after Prime Minister Theresa May presented some changes to her plan to leave the European Union on Monday afternoon. “(If I was) the prime minister of the United Kingdom, I would go back to the people, because the decision of having a new deal is as big as leaving the European Union,” he added. Some U.K. lawm

The U.K.’s withdrawal from the EU should be put to a second public vote to overcome the current impasse, the former prime minister of Finland told CNBC Monday.

The Brexit deadlock continues after Prime Minister Theresa May presented some changes to her plan to leave the European Union on Monday afternoon. This comes after U.K. lawmakers overwhelmingly defeated her proposals last week.

“I still think there are only three options on the table: Number one is the deal as it stands, number two is the hard Brexit … and number three, basically, is a new referendum,” Alexander Stubb, who is currently the vice president of the European Investment Bank, said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“(If I was) the prime minister of the United Kingdom, I would go back to the people, because the decision of having a new deal is as big as leaving the European Union,” he added.

Some U.K. lawmakers have been pushing for another referendum on Brexit, arguing that people now have a better idea of what leaving the European Union really means.

Speaking in front of the U.K. Parliament, May said that it’s the government’s duty to implement the decision of the first vote.

“I fear a second referendum would set a difficult precedent that could have significant implications for how we handle referendums in this country,” May said.

Extending the official Brexit deadline for the U.K. could bring a wave of extra logistical and political problems for the European Union. Extending the departure beyond the agreed date would likely clash with European parliamentary elections that are set to take place between May 23 and 26. The chamber is made of lawmakers from all 28 European member countries, including the U.K., and is responsible for approving European policies, such as the Union’s total budget. Macron said Wednesday that the

Extending the official Brexit deadline for the U.K. could bring a wave of extra logistical and political problems for the European Union.

The ongoing deadlock has sparked a debate on the potential extension of Article 50 — the legal means by which the U.K. leaves the EU. However, there is strong opposition from some European lawmakers over giving more time to the U.K. to sort out its domestic politics.

The U.K. is set to leave the EU on March 29 — but this could change if the U.K. asks for an extension and the other 27 member nations accept the request. Extending the departure beyond the agreed date would likely clash with European parliamentary elections that are set to take place between May 23 and 26. The chamber is made of lawmakers from all 28 European member countries, including the U.K., and is responsible for approving European policies, such as the Union’s total budget.

“What we will not let happen, deal or no deal, is that the mess in British politics is again imported into European politics. While we understand the U.K. could need more time, for us it is unthinkable that Article 50 is prolonged beyond the European Elections,” Guy Verhofstadt, a member of the European Parliament and its representative in Brexit negotiations, said on Twitter on Wednesday.

His comments come at a time when U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May’s proposed Brexit deal suffered a historic defeat in the House of Commons on Tuesday. Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron weighed in on the possibility that the U.K. would have to push back its departure date.

Macron said Wednesday that the U.K. “will take more time (to overcome the Brexit impasse), maybe they will step over the European elections in order to find something else.”

Speaking to CNBC via email Friday, Seb Dance, member of the European Parliament for the U.K. Labour party, said the prospect of having Brexit and the European elections clashing “is a logistical headache.”

“The impact of delaying Brexit on the EU elections is certainly troublesome logistically speaking,” he said, “but politically speaking it shouldn’t make a difference as it is entirely possible that elections take place in the other member states without needing to take place in Britain.”

However, some argue that even politically, it would be troublesome, as European officials and institutions want to focus on campaigning and speaking to voters ahead of the vote. The wave of populist sentiment in Europe after the fallout of the sovereign debt crisis has raised concerns, among the traditional parties, about what the next European Parliament will look like.

According to a Brussels-based European official, who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity surrounding the Brexit talks, an extension would likely mean that the U.K. would have to participate in the vote. This is because it would still technically be a member of the European Union.

Nobody seems to really want it, but everyone argues the U.K. needs to be ready for it: A no-deal Brexit — the possibility that the U.K.’s departure from the European Union on March 29 is abrupt. Stephen Barclay, the U.K.’s Brexit secretary, said earlier this month: “A responsible government needs to ensure that we are ready for that default option.” A no-deal Brexit would mean that the UK would leave the EU without a transition period and without any big agreement over their future relationship.

Nobody seems to really want it, but everyone argues the U.K. needs to be ready for it: A no-deal Brexit — the possibility that the U.K.’s departure from the European Union on March 29 is abrupt.

Stephen Barclay, the U.K.’s Brexit secretary, said earlier this month: “A responsible government needs to ensure that we are ready for that default option.” A no-deal Brexit would mean that the UK would leave the EU without a transition period and without any big agreement over their future relationship. But pay no huge sums of money and wouldn’t be tied to the EU for an indefinite amount of time.

During an interview to Sky News, he added that the government is “increasing communications” with pharmaceutical companies and European citizens living in the U.K.

But what else is the U.K. government doing? And is it enough?

“We have contracts in place for 5,000 (fridges) – and these are big, industrial refrigeration units,” Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the BBC this month. He added that the government spent “just over £10 million” with these items.

A measure of expected British house sales over the next three months was the weakest on record in December as Brexit approached, a survey of property valuers showed on Thursday. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said the net balance of -28 among surveyors about the short-term outlook for housing sales was the weakest in the 20 years it has been asking the question. Britain’s housing market has slowed since the June 2016 Brexit referendum with house prices, as measured by mortga

A measure of expected British house sales over the next three months was the weakest on record in December as Brexit approached, a survey of property valuers showed on Thursday.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said the net balance of -28 among surveyors about the short-term outlook for housing sales was the weakest in the 20 years it has been asking the question.

Britain’s housing market has slowed since the June 2016 Brexit referendum with house prices, as measured by mortgage lenders Halifax and Nationwide, growing at the slowest pace in around five years.

It’s ‘crucial’ for the UK to avoid a no-deal Brexit: Control Risks10 Hours AgoOksana Antonenko of Control Risks says a no-deal Brexit could be “catastrophic” for the U.K. economy, and it is “absolutely crucial” that British businesses continue to plan for all eventualities.

U.S. government debt prices were lower on Wednesday as traders digested news of the defeat of U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.729 percent, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond increased to 3.091 percent. May suffered a huge defeat in Parliament on Tuesday, which saw her Brexit deal voted down by 230 votes, which has been reported to be the highest margin of defeat for any sitting government in U.K. political histor

U.S. government debt prices were lower on Wednesday as traders digested news of the defeat of U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.729 percent, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond increased to 3.091 percent. Bond yields move inversely to prices.

May suffered a huge defeat in Parliament on Tuesday, which saw her Brexit deal voted down by 230 votes, which has been reported to be the highest margin of defeat for any sitting government in U.K. political history.

The prime minister told Parliament’s lower chamber that her Conservative government “will listen” to lawmakers’ concerns over the deal following the vote. The government will make a statement in the Parliament on Jan. 21, where she is expected to present a “plan B” for the divorce agreement.

Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the opposition Labour Party, tabled a motion of no-confidence in the government, which will be debated and voted on Wednesday. Sterling gained 0.1 percent against the dollar during morning trade, last changing hands at $1.2871.

In political news stateside, the partial U.S. government shutdown — the longest in history — has entered its 26th day. A political stalemate between the Democrats and the Trump administration over funding for President Trump’s proposed border wall has shown no signs of abating.

The U.K. faces yet more political turmoil Wednesday as another vote in Parliament could topple the government and leave a leadership vacuum at a crucial point in the country’s history. A vote will follow in the evening which, should the government lose, could trigger a countdown toward a General Election. The vote of no confidence is an attempt by Corbyn to trigger a new General Election which would allow him a chance at seizing power as the next leader of the U.K. Under the Fixed Term Parliamen

The U.K. faces yet more political turmoil Wednesday as another vote in Parliament could topple the government and leave a leadership vacuum at a crucial point in the country’s history.

Lawmakers will debate a motion of no confidence in Theresa May’s administration. A vote will follow in the evening which, should the government lose, could trigger a countdown toward a General Election.

The motion was tabled by the main opposition Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who claimed the government’s Brexit deal with Europe was now dead after its overwhelming rejection by politicians on Tuesday.

The vote of no confidence is an attempt by Corbyn to trigger a new General Election which would allow him a chance at seizing power as the next leader of the U.K.

Under the Fixed Term Parliament Act of 2011, Parliament’s fixed five-year term can only be shortened in two ways.

First, if more than two thirds of the House of Commons vote to call an election — and that means 434 of the 650 lawmakers.

The second is Corbyn’s plan. If his motion of no confidence tonight is passed by a majority, there is then a 14-day period in which to pass an act of confidence in a new government. If no such vote can be passed by Parliament, a new election of the British people must be held.